Blogmas Day 3: Family Traditions

Now that it’s safely into Winter and I’ve had the chance to enjoy a few Wintery plans it got me thinking about the more traditional plans I tend to have, particularly around this time of year.

I’m more interested in all the little traditions my family have now that my niece is here because I’m hoping some of these traditions will continue down to her generation! Before I start, some of these may not necessarily be considered as traditions but we’ll see what I come up with.

Sitting At The Top Of The Stairs Christmas Morning – Now I’m sure there are hundreds of people out there that remember the torment of Christmas morning where you and your siblings would be eagerly waiting to go downstairs to see what Santa had brought you but you had to wait on your mum and dad “getting ready”. Personally I always thought pyjamas were more than acceptable wear for Christmas morning but none the less we would wait what felt like a lifetime to be able to go downstairs. What’s funny that even now that I am 24 and my brother lives in his own house with a wife and daughter we still do this! Every year as my brother walks in the front door I’m waiting at the top of the stairs for him and he comes up and waits with me for the ok from my mum to go downstairs since that means my dad has set up the video camera. Silly to think about but I wouldn’t change it! It’s always nice to keep that little bit of childhood magic, especially at Christmas!

New Year Walk – Every year we start the New Year off with a walk up one of the massive hills we are surrounded by. This is normally followed by the same joke “well that’s me done my exercise for the year”, seriously every single year. Apart from an odd year or two that we’ve had to cancel because of bad weather, we all manage to be up and ready for our walk. Yes even after I was 18 and going out at Hogmanay I managed back the next morning in a decent enough state to manage this!

Christmas Eve Movie – This is fairly new but has quickly turned into a must every year. We don’t even get adventurous with the film and change it, it has to be the same every year and normally gets played at the same time of the day. Robin and the Seven Hoods. Now this is one I often have to explain to my friends because their dad’s have never made them sit through a Dean Martin or Rat Pack film. Thankfully with this one I’m glad I got to watch it because as usual with most weird traditions it leads to funny inside jokes. This means me, my brother and dad randomly quote parts of the film to one another – “Take it from me, don’t be a do-badder”.

Chocolate Coins In Our Stockings – Sometimes it really is the smallest things that matter the most and I would be so upset if I didn’t get chocolate coins in my stocking. It is literally one of the first things I look for. As an adult of course I could spend the entire of December buying myself chocolate coins but let’s be honest, it just wouldn’t be the same.

Funny Golfballs – Ironically the above one has actually led to a weird tradition between my brother and dad where they get each other packs of golfballs every year but they get them personalised with some form of inside joke every year. Now this has definitely gotten more difficult as the years go on considering they constantly try to outdo one another, with a previous example being “Mr Booze” (a quote from Robin and the Seven Hoods).

Too Many Potatoes – Now I wouldn’t really class this as a tradition, apart from the fact it happens every single year! Every single year my mum puts on far too many potatoes and every year without fail while the rest of us concede and decide not to push ourselves any further into a food coma my brother goes for it. Not only will he make his way through all the roast potatoes but he’ll also shovel all the mashed potatoes onto his plate as well as the odd potato the rest of us have left abandoned on our own plates. I suppose this ultimately leads to the traditional seeing my brother spread out on the coach after eating far too much.

Photo In Front Of The Tree On Christmas Eve – Pretty sure most families do this but even now at the age of 25 and 29, me and my brother still get a photo. This might change this year and we can make it more about my niece than us but at least last year he still came over Christmas Eve to get a photo in front of the tree.